The Department of Linguistics offers instruction in linguistics leading to a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Arts in one of two options (general linguistics and applied linguistics) and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Linguistics.

The primary aim of linguistics as a science is to study the use and organization of human language in coding and communicating knowledge. The undergraduate program offers instruction in the nature of human language, the structural variety of individual languages, and the methodology of conducting a linguistic investigation. Although linguists may study specific details of many languages, they do so to gain insight into the properties and processes common to all languages. Such common features may in turn reflect universals of human cognitive, cultural, and social organization.